The purpose of this blog is to provide arguments for the non-existence or implausibility of God. I once considered myself a Christian. But upon reading philosophy I dropped it like a sack of potatoes. The clarity of my thinking today is a testimony to the value of philosophy, so I hope you read my philosophy blogs. But you need to really develop your own. Just I hope I can provide some useful tips. The efficacy of my thinking is really my greatest pride. Yeh...I know its a sin. :)

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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

This blog is the story of two Christians - one with full-blown dogmatism, the other with the shallow superficial type. Lets call them 'DOG' and 'SHAL'. SHAL is a friendly Filipino guy who is very affable and polite. He managed to find a client who wanted a website developed. He outsourced the project to a colleague at his office. The colleague 'DOG' was happy to perform the service for $300, allowing SHAL to charge the Western client $500, giving him a $200 profit.Upon completing the job, DOG told SHAL that his normal terms for referrals is 15% of the fee, meaning that he would get the $500 and pay SHAL just $75. This was no doubt good money for doing nothing, but then it was not as had been agreed.It's hard to imagine how DOG could rationalise this. Maybe he convinced himself that he did more work than had originally been outlined. Maybe he thought I can afford to burn SHAL because they no longer work together, and they were not close friends. Maybe he thought he was evious because he was putting in so much effort (i.e. all the programming) but getting so little return. Maybe he thought a verbal agreement is not a real agreement, just a rough estimate.From SHAL's perspective, he probably thought, I've known this guy for 3-4 years, so he's not going to cheat me. This guy goes to church, he's even in the church choir, so he is not going to cheat him. I myself am surprised because he will not get anymore business. But then herein lies the problem. DOG is no doubt confident of his own sales that he probably does not think he will need to rely on SHAL in future, so better to betray him on terms today.Clearly the moral of this story is that you can only deal with Christians from a position of strength. Ultimately the best source of strength is a written contract. I therefore warn Christians and non-Christians alike, if you deal with those who profess to be Christian or morally superior, make sure you have recourse.I think honest people even will go to the position of locking themselves into unfavourable terms because they have no problem taking responsibility. Those who resent you for questioning their integrity by requesting a contractual agreement are a worry. Do not back down!

The intent here is not to show that all Christians are cheats, or that all cheats are only Christians. The intent is to show that Christianity enables a pattern of thought that sometimes results in cheating or gross rationalisations to obtain financial reward or to break commitments. It does this by encouraging dogmatism and invalid, subjective ethical judgements. At a psychological it also encourages evasion and repression by undermining the capacity of the person to think.The more important objective of this blog is to show that Christianity is not a badge of respectibility. I was sooner respect a gang member than a Christian. The more they go to church the greater the level of delusion. The more successful or ambition, the greater the level of delusion.-------------------------------------------------Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

In fact anyone who has had an interesting encounter with a Christian which involved manipulation, deception or blatant rationalisation. This is research or material for a forthcoming book. I am not suggesting that all Christians are criminals, dangerous or threats to society, but I am suggesting that Christianity is a basis for moral inefficacy. There is a reason why Christian nations are always at war. There is a reason why former Christians (or children of Christians) have a tendency to drift into cults and extreme religious groups. Thank you for any life experiences you can recall.
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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com